More than 40 species: tundra of European Arctic, Alps of Europe, mountains of C Asia; one species (endemic) in China.

Taraxacum sect. Arctica has rarely been reported to occur in C Asia or China, and reports (e.g., FRPS 80(2). 1999) did not cover members of the section. However, there are several taxa described from that territory that belong to it on the basis of achene and outer phyllary characters. They are T. junatovii Tzvelev (SW Mongolia), T. heptapotamicum Schischkin and T. atrans Schischkin (C Tian Shan), and T. tzvelevii Schischkin (Tajikistan). Taraxacum alatopetiolum, endemic to China, also belongs to this group.

Taraxacum altaicum Schischkin (Sist. Zametki Mater. Gerb. Krylova Tomsk. Gosud. Univ. Kuybysheva 1949(1-2): 6. 1949), reported as a Chinese species in FRPS (80(2): 37. 1999), is a marginal member of T. sect. Arctica or an intermediate between T. sect. Arctica and T. sect. Borealia. It occurs in the Russian part of the Altai and perhaps might be found in northernmost Xinjiang. However, the description in FRPS does not correspond to the characters of the species, and no Chinese material of this species has been revised by us.